The 57 Best 20SomethingFinance Posts of 2010. Happy New Year!

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20SomethingFinance just turned three years old and to celebrate, I will continue the annual tradition of highlighting the top posts of the previous year. This is a mix of what I think are the most informative, entertaining, and popular posts of the year. Is 57 a lot? Yeah, probably. I had a difficult time choosing, admittedly, but I gave brief recaps so you can pick and choose the ones you are most interested in reading or re-reading.

2010 was a great year at 20SomethingFinance and with traffic to the site more than tripling and the subscriber-base growing by 50%, I’m more than encouraged to keep on writing for the years to come.

If you’re newer to the site, you might also want to get a quick recap of the back-catalogs through my 2012, 2011, 2009 and 2008 ‘best-of’ editions as well. If you haven’t yet done so, you can also subscribe to the 20SomethingFinance Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, or subscribe to get new posts via email or RSS.

Thanks for making 2010 a great one, and I’m looking forward to keeping the fight for financial freedom alive in 2011 with all of you!

January:

• Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office: Hate paying for MS Office? I did too. So I stopped using it. Here’s how.
• The Best Android Personal Finance Apps: Android is now the most popular mobile operating system. This post highlights the best ways to use the phone for personal finance purposes.
• How to Avoid Putting your Bridesmaids & Groomsmen in Debt: They will thank you later.
• Itemizing Tax Deductions: This post is a teaser on how to do it if you are considering going a different route than the standard deduction.

February:

• The First Steps to Stop Dreaming & Start Retiring Now: A motivation post on lifestyle design.
• Getting Paid to do what you Love: People are willing to pay you for doing what you already do for free.
• 55 Marketable Hobbies that you Love & Can get Paid for: This post was written to squash the self-defeating notion that “there’s no work for me to do that I enjoy”.
• PerkStreet Financial Review: PerkStreet came out of nowhere and is easily in my top 10 for ‘best financial service products’.

March:

• 6 Reasons Why your Next Car Should be a Ford Fiesta: The American automaker haters railed me for this one, but a number of readers came to my defense.
• Free Credit Report Scams: The FTC created a series of ‘free credit report’ commercial parody spoofs.
• 5 Personal Finance Goals for your Thirties: It doesn’t hurt to look ahead a little, no?
• American Paternity & Maternity Leave (vs. the rest of the world): Another one that got some people fired up.
• Health Care Reform: An article on how the Healthcare Reform Act will impact readers over the next six years.

April:

• Save on Groceries? Not if it means sacrificing these 6 food qualities.
• 4 Keys to Saving Money on Food & Groceries without Sacrifice
• Auto Insurance Quotes (How to Get the Most out of them).
• 8 Personal Finance Spring Cleaning Ninja Moves: A series of 8 tips to help you improve your financial situation.

May:

• Roth 401K vs. Traditional 401K: A comparison between the two.
• How to Donate your Car to Charity: 7 easy steps to do it right so that you don’t get taken advantage of.
• How to Replace the Air Filter in a Car: An easy money-saving tutorial.
• Ooma Review: I wrote this review one year into using the Ooma.
• How to Check Tire Pressure & Inflate your Tires: Another easy money-saving tutorial.

June:

• How Much do you Tip for Food Delivery? A reader poll that resulted in a lot of people expressing very strong opinions.
• Federal Tax Brackets: How to plan before it’s too late to impact your taxes for the year.
• Finding Happiness Along the Way to Long-Term Financial Goals: If you only read one post this year on 20SF, let it be this.
• Does Nitrogen Tire Inflation Save Mileage?

July:

• The Top 10 Cities for Young Professionals: My review on Kiplinger’s picks.
• Tracfone Review: I don’t know of a cheaper way to get cell phone coverage than Tracfone.
• Intro to Urban Homesteading: If you don’t know what it is yet, check it out.
• How to Get Rid of Clutter: I highlight 3 guerrilla tactics for doing so.
• Standby Power Appliances: How to identify where you are wasting money on your electric bill from appliances that aren’t running.

August:

• AGI vs. MAGI: what these boring terms mean and why they are important to know.
• Chevy Volt vs. Nissan Leaf: find out which is more economical.
• Amazon Kindle Wifi 3G Review: Kindle’s are getting cheap, but do they still make sense economically?
• 7 Huge Benefits to Downsizing into a Tiny Home
• CouchSurfing: is Couchsurfing a legit economic travel alternative?
• Roth IRA Conversion Rules

September:

• Mail Identity Theft & Mail Fraud Protection: 7 tips to protect yourself.
• Free Birthday Meals: 10 free meals that you can get on your birthday!
• Cheapest Mobile Data Plans: I review all unlimited mobile data plans and highlight the cheapest.
• Do you Tip for Takeout?: Reader poll and opinions.

October:

• How to Get Rid of Cable: Readers share their stories.
• The 4 Pillars that will Bring Job Security: An important read for our generation in today’s economy.
• Secured Credit Cards: How to use them to build your credit.
• The U.S. is the Most Overworked Nation in the World: When do we Draw the Line? This post was the most popular of 2010, going viral through social media twice.
• Bartering Websites: Which are legit and how to barter online.

November:

• 3 Steps to Pull Away from the Rat Race & Work Fewer Hours: One of my favorite posts to write in the past year.
• 2011 FSA Changes: Find out what is changing in 2011 with FSA rules.
• Cost of Bottled Water vs. Tap Water: Find out what the true cost is of each.
• I Hate my Job!: 55% of Americans agree. Here’s what to do about it.
• Moving in with the Parents: 85% of college seniors planned on it. Is it the right move?

December:

• The 5 Worst Retailer Return Policies: Find out who made my s$%# list.
• Money Saving Gift Ideas: 7 gift ideas that save money for the people you are giving gifts to.
• Discover it^TM Card Review: A review of another one of the top 5 credit cards out there.
• Napping at Work: Why aren’t more employers encouraging it?